May 26
Manchester United 07/08 Season Review: The Midfield
Yesterday we talked about the attack and got a good response in the comments as well. For those who missed it, head over and have a look at the ratings and do drop in your comments.
Today we discuss the midfield, and as I mentioned earlier, we mean the central midfield.
Paul Scholes:
As with Giggs, another great servant of Manchester United. Quite easily among the most technically gifted English midfielders of the past decade. Scholesy’s international retirement has been our gain as this has helped keep him fresh for our games, but this season he clearly seemed on his last legs. SAF has said his contribution next season will be much less than this year. The Ginger Prince made an excellent start after returning from injury, with a great performance against Pompey, earlier this year. But after that early promise he seemed to fade away a bit. He punctuated some below-par performances with the odd great ‘un, but overall he has been underwhelming by his own high standards.
He, however reserved his best for the last. While being run over against Barcelona in the first leg, he managed to keep his cool and not earn any yellow cards, while blasting the winner in the second leg. In the final against Chelsea, his one-two with Brown led to the goal against Chelsea. Whilst he was overrun by Ballack and co in the second half, it must be noted that he was battling a bloody nose throughout the game. Rating: 7/10
Michael Carrick:
After a slow start to the season, Carrick has managed to overcome stiff competition for the midfield berth to become a regular. That, in itself, is rebuttal to the earlier criticism that he doesn’t have the bottle to fight for his place. Carrick has certainly improved his passing range this season. He has attempted more forward and ambitious passes than he’s ever done before but he is still capable of doing better than what he’s shown. Rating: 7/10
Owen Hargreaves:
Has had a stop start first season when his injury situation was scaring the hell out of many fans. Thankfully he seems to have overcome all that and can be judged on his performance on the pitch instead of his injury. He ended the season strongly and has shown enough character to potentially become one of United’s most important players in the coming years. His versatility — he can play at right back, right wing apart from central midfield — has given United options they never previously had. His performance at home on the right wing against Roma was one of the highlights. He’s got excellent crossing ability, great engine, and a good head on his shoulders. He’s a fighter, and had he come to the Premier League earlier, many more people would have seen what Sven saw in him. Rating: 7.5/10
Anderson:
The surprise package. No one expected too much from him in his very first season. When Scholes, Carrick and Hargreaves suffered injuries and knocks, everyone thought the season was going to be pretty tough. Not to mention, some hacks writing him off after the defeat at Coventry in the Carling Cup.
Coming on as a sub in the Wigan game changed everything; he turned the game with his energy and passing. But it were the big games where he really grew in fans’ estimation. His power packed performances against Arsenal at the Emirates or Liverpool at Anfield showed the lad had much more in him than quick feet. Upstaging Gerrard and Fabregas in their own den at the tender age of 19 would be the thing of dreams for most footballers. Players like him are the reason why we came so far this season. SAF now has the ability to look at his bench when things aren’t going so well on the pitch, and smile. Anderson’s introduction against Arsenal at OT again changed the game. And his nerveless penalty in the final also showed what he’s made of. An excellent debut season. Rating: 7.5/10
Darren Fletcher:
He’s done the job when called upon like he’s always done. The good thing about United’s squad is that fringe players are always ready to play when the manager calls them up and don’t sulk when they are not called upon. Fletcher has played much less this season than before but he’s been important to the squad. He has this uncanny knack of doing well in big games, like the FA Cup game against Arsenal. However he was run over in the loss at Stamford Bridge. A good squad player, but I can’t see him progress beyond this at United. Rating: 6.5/10
Related items from Red Rants:
- Sepptic Blabbermouth Opens Gob + Roundup
- Farewell Gerard, Selfish Rooney, EVDS to Play Till 40?
- Manchester United ‘Official’ 07/08 Away Kit
- Manchester United 07/08 Season Review: The Defence
- Manchester United Fixtures for the 07/08 Season
Tags: Manchester United Players
Craig Mc (200)
RedDevilEddy (182)
Opti (145)
Ian (108)
Moscow is my heaven (99)
You people just kick the spirit out of me. I bloody well give up because you just don’t get it. OK I confess, I’m guilty. I’m wrong, condescending, bias, smug, etc. I surrender. And RR, sorry mate but you were sniping. Nobody gets that kind of rebuttal from you like I got. In fact, I have to think very hard to remember you ever agreeing with one of my points, ever. Sometimes many of you make me feel like I’m from fucking Mars. Like my views are so God Damned alien. It’s frustrating as hell because like all of you I like to be accepted and respected too. The fact that many do think of the game in simpler terms is not condescending, it’s true. I consider myself more than just a fan of football. I consider myself a student of the game as well. That doesn’t always make me right but then again I never thought it was condescending to generalize as to not offend specific individuals. None of you ever generalize when it comes to raining down your fury on me though.
About Hargreaves, I made a point of saying I know more about him than most of you because I doubt any of you are die hard Bayern Munich fans that have watched nearly all their games in the past 8 years. I have. Therefore I felt comfortable and more than qualified to make my points about Hargo. And to the individual who assumes I’m hypocritical about Hargo’s injury when compared to Saha, oh well, I’ll just learn to live with it because I really don’t care. When Hargo wastes four years of man Utd’s time then perhaps I can be seen as hypocrite. From where I stand I think the comparison is absurd.
What’s the point I’m alone in the wilderness here and I don’t see any allies who see my side in any damned thing I say, so what’s the point. Good day to you all. And I’m called bias. Go figure!
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I think both Fletcher(cue Arsenal FA cup and Roma performance) and Carrick(his passes are breathtaking) deserve more than what they got.
Can’t wait for you to review the defense, they’ve all been so spectacular this season, it would be tough grading one more than the other.
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“About Anderson, fair enough mate. But you don’t apply the same standards to judge Hargreaves — there’s no consistency there. Hargreaves was bought to be a DMF, he excelled as a winger and a right back. Anderson might turn out as a midfielder rather than a winger. It’s very easy to dismiss the lad, but we don’t realise his contribution this season when we were crippled with injuries late 2007. Anderson walked right in and performed. In the context of how close the season turned out to be, that period of great form alone did it for me as far as Anderson is concerned. I am not so easily seduced by little stepovers. [as an aside: I still am not seduced by Ronaldo’s stepovers. It’s good if he beats two players. Everything else is basically bells and whistles.] Anderson’s influence against Arsenal was as crucial as Hargreaves’ free kick.
He’s a kid, but he punched well above his weight in his very first season. That’s the context I am talking about. He did better than Nani, and has shown more bottle. This is why I rated him a 7.5 (even 7 is agreeable by me).”
Pefectly said RR, Agree totaly. I think Man Utd review as a team and an institution gets 10/10. Everything done with class.
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Well I agree with Grognard to a degree.It seems like people forget that Hargreaves played his first 3 games at a very high level as a DM before knee issues.On the official Red’s website he was voted MOM 3 out of 3 games (1 tie).Ratings are subjective and the issue is was he 1.5 better than Carrick? Perhaps not,but in my opinion he played better than Carrick in those 3 games at the DM position than Carrick did in any single game.He filled in admirably at RB and looked great on the wing with his ability to cross.He is showing a knack for the free kick and taking penalties.That said my ratings would be very similar Scholes 7.0,Carrick 6.75,Hargreaves 7.75,Anderson 7.25.If one has a problem with such a small increment as 1.5 then I’ll rate them by the quarter.I don’t get the Carrick love.There were literally 4-5 games early in the year before he was benched that you would have been hardpressed to know he was even on the pitch.He did play much better in the second half of the season.But to go from invisible to quite good is not that impressive,and speaks to why he never seems to get a call up to the national team.
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I have not seen Hargreaves play much for Bayern or England but from what I have seen he is made for a right midfielder/right wingback position: pace, good tackling, energy, running, crossing, heading etc.
Anderson excites me because I sense that he has just been filling a role this season and has had the shackles on. I believe as well as his obvious defensive qualities we will soon see his excellent passing range (I remember earlier in the season seeing a few long passes that even Carrick would be proud of), his acceleration, his shooting (Im sure his shooting this season was just a combination of nerves and trying too hard), and while his decision making and positioning is not great he still shows remarkable intelligence for a 19 year old and as he matures he will start dictating play from midfield and pulling the strings.
Forget Keane and Scholes replacement ideas….this boy could be the most complete central midfielder we’ve had since Bryan Robson.
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Sir Alex Ferguson wants to spend his £50m summer transfer budget within the next fortnight, with Micah Richards and Sevilla’s Brazilian duo Luis Fabiano and Daniel Alves top of his wish-list. (Daily Mirror)
Why o’Why Fabiano and Alves????????? Get a proper proven goal scorer. Ive seen quite a few Sevilla matches and niether are good enough. Alves is just a Right Winger who likes playing at right back because he gets to skip past a few more. He isnt defensive enough.
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SHANNON; In todays game very few players ever play just one position or role in a season. I can’t stop and judge Hargo on the fact he played different positions. He’s marked down as a midfielder and I graded his play based on his total contribution, even if that meant he played a few games at RB.
UTSAV; I totally agree mate. Fabiano is woefully overrated by Fergie. In this scenario I would prefer Manucho and Welbeck. Alves is a world class talent but I don’t feel his heart is with playing for us and I don’t understand the desire to go after players who don’t openly love, admire and want to play for United. And you are right, he will be a problem for us defensively. Huntelaar and Richards are admirers of the team and I think they would find contentment and success with United. Alves will want to bolt to either Madrid or Barca in a year or two and so will Fabiano despite the fact he will be sitting on the bench after the first ten games due to his one lone goal for us. The guy is a bum. DON’T DO IT FERGIE!
SlappyJones; Thanks for the support mate. At least somebody has a good memory and gets it. Excellent observation on Carrick too. That’s why he gets a 7 from me rather than the consensus which seems to be an 8. By the way, love the name.
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RE: Utsav and Grognard:
At first, I reacted the same way as you did about Alves. He’s a right back with suspect defensive qualities. Then I remembered that at the start of last season, Fergie played Evra at left wing in front of Silvestre at left back, before Silvestre’s knee let him down. Thus, there could be a possibility that Fergie is interested in Alves because he gives us an option at right WING with his speed and attacking ability. As you can probably see by now, Fergie prefers players who are generally more versatile.
With respect to Alves’ character, in the latest Man Utd magazine, Fergie has said that he only brings in players that can fit into the dressing room at OT with the desire to win. That’s why we have such a good atmosphere. I can only say that I trust Fergie to also make a thorough assessment over Alves’ character before he makes a move to sign him.
Again, this is purely speculative and strictly my opinion.
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Grognard; The ratings are decided on this year’s performances alone, so having watched Hargreaves previously gives you no added advantage than any of us. The same thing for Saha, it is judged on this season alone and not on his previous seasons. I never called you a hypocrite, you just made that connection.
I’m glad you think of yourself as such a great student of football, you do seem to have a great amount of football knowledge, but don’t just assume that we aren’t all students of football. That is a very, very unnecessary thing to say. And why do you get so wound up over one thing that Red Ranter says? Really, I couldn’t care less about being accepted here, you seem to be overly desperate to have people like you here. Let me remind you, this is the internet, chances are if we all lived in the same city and never had the internet we would never even want to socialise with each other. We all come from different backgrounds, so keep your assumptions to yourself.
And now you come out as the person who seems to be victimised by all these mean, mean men
. You use sarcasm to avoid having to answer people about how you showed bias, how you were condescending and how you were smug. Fred didn’t even get an apology, and if RR and Fred both seen it as condescending, you would have to take their word for it rather than being stubborn.
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@Redd75
Evra did bring another dimension to our attack while fulfilling his defensive duties okay! Now my problem is: Can we afford to have 2 wing backs who dart forward. Brown thought and behaved like a center back and hence good defensive capabilities. I cant even imagine the pressure on Rio and Vida if both the Wing Backs are caught out of position upfront.
As far as Fabiano: NOOOOOOOOOOO Way… I think Fergie wants a decently cheap striker because he wants to splurge on Richards and a midfielder
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Utsav, what I meant was that Alves could be brought in to play as a right winger in front of Wes Brown or whoever is playing right back. At the start of the season, Evra was playing left wing in front of Silvestre at left back.
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One way to accomodate alves would be to play with two defensive mids (so surely a 4-3-3 kind of formation). In any case OH, Carrick & Fletcher are all defensive mids only. They dont have the attacking mentality of a Lampard or Gerrard. Prob next year we can play with very attacking 4-3-3 kind of system with 3 central mids (two of them being defensive role) so that fullbacks can dart forward. thats how Brazil play and thats how Barca play.
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jos, brazil aren’t what they use to be, and didnt we beat barca with a 4-4-2? and didnt we win the CL with a player who has “no attacking mentality” on the wing?
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I hate to say it but Carrick once again leaves me in dismay. He can play, i wouldnt have beleived it unless i saw it, but i did and i do. But his final was shocking. He needs to step up and dominate a string of games. He can scrap, he can play some delicious balls but he can also be completely invisible. I dont know what to say about him. but i feel a rating of 7 may be slightly high. Maybe something like 6.5, just to highlight the spread of his peformances, from sensational to crap. Consistency is what won us the PL, and players need to be consistent in performances. I completely agree with the other ratings. OH for me was one of our top players this season. Only outshone by the performance of CR7 and the rightful captain of England, Rio.
Sorry to once again mention this recycled Carrick topic, but just thought in review it had to be mentioned.
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dan
you are so right. we have won the double and with great set of 24 or so players so we need nobody (forget that neville & giggs & scholes are past their sell-by date)! we also totally outclassed chelsea (both in league and CL) and the likes of Arsenal and Liverpool in the league (esp in the midfield). We are so strong that even if rooney, tevez and ronaldo dont play/score we will beat the other team by 10 goals… We dont need nobody
All the people here are basically fools to be clamoring for big name signings…
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Jos; we won the league because of Ronaldo. I know Manchester United > Ronaldo but it still doesn’t change the fact that we can’t be expecting Ronaldo to score 40 goals every season. Say he scores 30, we probably would have won nothing. There is a fine line between success and failure, constant improvement keeps us just on the right side of the line.
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conor
i was just trying to be sarcastic (read carefully)!
fully understand squad needs strengthening.
We were quite lucky in few games and that helped a lot. I think the midfield was never in control of any of the big games (except CL final first half – that too was more of ronaldo show). we allowed too much possession to opponents (be it arsenal or liverpool or chelsea or barca). Didnt look too pleasing to the eye really. And it also meant less of chances for our forward trio to do anything.
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Alves would probably be played right midfield for us if he came, due to his attacking nature. I would like to see him play full back but i can’t see it.
Also, how do we know Fabiano is rated by fergie? It’s only speculation in a paper, fergie could think he’s crap for all we know.
It’s simple really why we would want to bring in players who do not love and admire united – they have the ability. If they are the best bet from what’s around to bring something to our team then it would be stupid to turn our attention elsewhere just because he isn’t a united fan.
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A quick point on Carrick, he will never dominate games, it isn’t in his nature. Same way as Hargreaves doesn’t hit 70 yard crossfield balls and Scholes will never be able to tackle properly. He is there to help keep the game moving, others like Anderson and Hargreaves will have to do the ‘grabbbing the game by the scruff of the neck’.
Now it would also appear that someone sent the toys out of the pram. Student of the game
At least we didn’t get the political correctness bitch and moan today.
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Carrick deserves at least an 8. He’s been our most consistent central midfielder all season. And I think Carrick often does dominate games, but it’s in a more indirect way than Scholes or Deco would. He cleans up all the loose balls and finds space admirably. His eye for a pass is up there with Scholesy’s. He dominates by allowing other players time and space, which then draws players away from him and allows him that space. he’s a very intelligent footballer, although his shooting can be truly woeful.
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How can you say hes been our most consistent player in midfield, admitedly there hasnt been to many others that stand out. But most consistent? I think anderson was more consistent when on the pitch. Not saying he was better but more consistent. Carrick was about as consistent as sepp blatter is honest. I just wish that he could rock up to every game and play the way he can, with his disecting balls etc. But he doesnt and until he does i will always cringe when he pulls on the shirt, or when SAF prasies him for being “our heart on the pitch”. Because as i said, our success is based on consistency, you cant win back to back leagues without it. so for me Carrick needs to add this element to his game or continue to be a midfielder who for me, looks like he is out of his depth.
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Sam; Because he is quietly consistent. He has some game where to most people he looks like he is doing nothing, when really he is making us tick. He makes a lot of unnoticed interceptions and nice, quick short passes. To say that Anderson was our most consistent is laughable.
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I didnt say he was the most consistent i said he was more so than carrick. what is laughable is your notion that he makes us tick. that his zoning off and his space marking is consistent and that overall he was worth the money we spent on him. As i said before i want him to stand up and play like i/we know he can, support our strikers we nice FORWARD ball movement and pushing into space. rather than play for intercepts etc. a player to be ‘quietly’ consistent is rather humerous at this level. I cant remember a manchester player in recent years that is so hot/cold.
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Sam; Makele is quietly consistent, and he’s been playing at the top level for years. I’m not going to argue if you are going to be so close-minded.
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